img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/6/feature-0-1394114593374.png" /pThe rapid development of rooftop solar and battery storage technology could be as transformative to the economy and modern life as the U.S. oil and gas boom, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/6/feature-0-1394114251022.jpg" /pThe European Union should ensure that future climate and energy policies do not undermine the competitiveness of its industry, already weakened by a price gap with the U.S., the bloc’s member states said./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/5/feature-0-1394038003678.jpg" /p What would Alexandre Edmond Becquerel be thinking now? In 1839, at the age of just 19, Becquerel built the world’s first photovoltaic panel, later inspiring the imaginations of millions of people worldwide, including legendary scientist Albert Einstein. Still, it took another 115 years before Bell Labs invented the first modern silicon solar cel/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/5/feature-0-1394038417971.jpg" /pIf ever there was a champion of efficiency, the military would be it. Energy efficiency is no exception to this generalization. As The Solar Foundation (TSF) and Operation Free tell us in a recent Veterans in Solar report, the U.S. military has scaled up its use of distributed renewable energy technologies, at home and in combat zones, to strengthe/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/5/feature-0-1394037037369.jpg" /pFires in homes are generally caused by kitchen mishaps, heating system fires or electrical malfunctions. When it comes to fire safety, the solar industry's track record is excellent — with only a few documented cases in which the solar system actually caused a fire (generally due to improper wiring or equipment malfunctions). /p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/3/feature-0-1393867710398.jpg" /pFor years, low-cost solar-plus-battery systems were seen as a distant possibility at best, a fringe technology not likely to be a threat to mainstream electricity delivery any time soon. By far, the limiting factor has been battery costs. But thanks to a confluence of factors playing out across the energy industry, the reality is that affordable battery storage is coming much sooner than most people realize. That approaching day of cheaper battery storage, when combined with solar PV, has the potential to fundamentally alter the electricity landscape./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/5/feature-0-1394042979442.jpg" /pDistributed generation is the most disruptive technology to the utility business model, but rather than look at it as a threat, most utility executives perceive it as an opportunity, according to a survey commissioned by engineering firm Siemens./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/2/17/feature-0-1392672975273.jpg" /pSeveral countries have announced ambitious goals to be powered completely by renewable energy, while other nations set smaller, incremental goals. These high aspirations have sparked quite a debate amongst industry experts, and we here at Renewable Energy World are curious to hear what you, our readers, have to say. /p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/5/feature-0-1394044708712.jpg" /pLast week, the Kansas House Energy Committee again considered taking up an anti-solar net metering bill (HB 2458) pushed by two major utilities Westar Energy and Kansas City Power Light. The House committee passed an amended HB2458 that would make substantive, negative changes to solar net metering if passed through the state legislature. As amen/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/3/feature-0-1393888802921.jpg" /pIt is no secret that Virginia lags far behind in its track record on solar energy, especially compared to neighboring states such as D.C., North Carolina, and Maryland. Thanks largely to the development of robust solar renewable energy credit (SREC) markets, Maryland ranks fourteenth in the country in installed solar capacity, and the latest Solar /p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/3/feature-0-1393883884680.jpg" /pU.S. President Obama signed the $1.1 trillion compromise spending bill that funds the government through September 2014 on January 17, 2014. The bipartisan budget temporarily brought an end to forced budget cuts and constant infighting over funding in Congress. The new budget eases many of the sequester-imposed spending cuts while reducing the federal deficit by about a trillion dollars over the next ten years./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/5/feature-0-1393995820014.jpg" /pSolar photovoltaic (PV) installations in the U.S. topped 4.78 GW in 2013, an increase of 41 percent over 2012, according to the annual market review and outlook published today by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GTM Research. The industry won't quite maintain that torrid pace in 2014, but watch for progress on a number of important fronts, from long-anticipated investment innovation to a rebound in the midsize project sector to addressing changes to federal investment tax credits.
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img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/3/feature-0-1393859775553.jpg" /pSolar advocates were popping corks when a New Year’s Eve ruling by an administrative law judge in Minnesota said that distributed solar arrays were a more cost-effective resource than natural gas to meet Xcel Energy’s peak power needs. The energy media were aflutter for weeks, but many missed the bigger significance. If solar trumps gas for peaking/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/3/feature-0-1393885366765.jpg" /pIn the late 1980s, the band R.E.M. achieved pop music fame by claiming, it's the end of the world as we know it. Utilities should heed their warning. Distributed generation (DG) could be the end of utilities as we know them today. Or, as we at Morningstar like to say, DG could destroy utilities' economic moats./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/3/feature-0-1393866623116.jpg" /pThe Austin, Texas, City Council approved a wind power contract Feb. 27 that enables Austin Energy to achieve its goal of delivering 35 percent of all of its electricity from renewable sources four years ahead of its goal, the utility said in a news release./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/3/feature-0-1393828249141.jpg" /pThat’s right, not one, but two thin-film solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies broke efficiency records last week. Both technologies put their thin-film PV within much closer range of silicon-based PV, which comprise the overwhelming majority of installed solar power today. Since thin-film embraces a variety of technologies, they’re at different le/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/3/feature-0-1393856153441.jpg" /pOpportunities for me to write about former solar pioneer Suntech (OTC: STPFQ) are growing fewer with each passing day, as its life as an independent company nears an end with the imminent finalization of its bankruptcy liquidation. That said, a company announcement saying that a new Suntech has emerged after the yearlong bankruptcy storm seems like/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/2/28/feature-0-1393606371682.jpg" /pThe limited availability of low-cost financing is holding back market adoption of solar photovoltaics (PV). However, securitization can make project financing more affordable than it is today, according to new research from the Open Sustainability Technology Laboratory at Michigan Technological University./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2014/3/1/feature-0-1393707263256.jpg" /pTesla made a splash last week with its proposed $5 billion "Gigafactory" and its eye-popping numbers: a 10 million square foot facility on an entire land area of 500-1,000 acres, with output of 35 GWh/year of battery cells and 50 GWh/year of battery packs by 2020. That'll be enough to support 500,000 of the company's forthcoming Gen-3 vehicles, compared with a little over 20,000 annual demand for its cars today. By comparison, the entire lithium-ion battery supply-chain produced about 34 GWh in 2013, the vast amount going not to electric vehicles but consumer electronics.
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